Mar

This Internet Marketing Stuff is a LOT of Work

By Sid

Damn right, buckaroo.

Internet marketing IS a lot of work if you want to make money. One way or another, you’re going to have to do something besides put up a pretty web site.

This came up because of a conversation I had during lunch with a good friend and his clients. They’re artists. He’s a down-to-earth marketer. That’s often like oil and water when it comes to selling stuff online.

His goal is to make money while providing a useful services. Their goal is to promote their artistic masterpiece. My role in the conversation was to explain how they can do both on the internet.

After explaining things in as simple terms as I could for about 20 minutes, I could see their eyes glazing over. All the woman artist could say was, “that sounds like a lot of work.” The man kept his mouth shut, either because he had already checked out, or because he didn’t want to say something stupid.

I have a tendency to be straightforward, which helps me win some new clients and lose others. Those who want the purely rosy picture will hire someone else. People who just want to sell their stuff online no matter what become my clients.

Here’s the 5-minute version of what I told them…

The Easy Way To Sell Your Stuff Online

These folks had created a slick documentary that the people at OPB loved. For confidentiality reasons, I can’t tell you more, although it doesn’t matter for our purposes.

The deal is that they have this great work of art. Let’s say that OPB shows it once. And, let’s then say that half a million people watch it – an estimate that is probably WAY too high. Out of that group, maybe 5-10% will think to go to their web site to check out what else they have to offer. That’s a one-time hit of 50,000 people tops (more likely on the order of 2 or 3 thousand).

Not bad, you say?

Not really, I say. Those usually aren’t buyers. For example, I’ve watched the wonderful series “Planet Earth” twice. If they have a web site, I haven’t seen it, and I’m online all day.

Why do I think they aren’t buyers? They’re not looking for information to solve a problem – they’re looking to be entertained… and there is a HUGE difference. People with a problem are more likely to spend money for a solution in today’s economy than are people simply looking for entertainment.

So here’s what I told them to do:

Create several new video clips related to their main OPB piece (new to ensure they don’t tick off OPB or other distributors) and use those as teasers and to create their online brand.
Then create a series of 4-5 “how to” videos for their niche. Make sure these are uniquely connected to their brand image, are superior to anything else sold online, and answer the most pressing questions of their target market.
Go online and find as many businesses, web sites and people as possible who already cater to their target market online. Create relationships with as many of these people as possible. Send them the teasers and the how-to videos.
Get these new affiliates to send out the teasers to their lists. The purpose of the teasers is to get people BACK to a blog squeeze page, where they can GIVE AWAY their best how-to video in exchange for contact information. This is how they build their list.
Offer the entire how-to video series at a heaping big discount to create a massive list of satisfied customers who want MORE. In exchange for the discount, people will follow the instructions in the videos and then tell THEIR personal stories.

The above scenario would help them to generate income quickly, which in turn would seed further video production and the creation of additional products to sell AND give away to their market.

They would also get a slew of happy customers who will gladly tell their stories. These stories can be added to the blog and the main sales page, which in turn increases the social proof that they are the real deal.

Notice that I didn’t mention social networking, social media, search engine optimization or any one of a number of other internet marketing buzzwords.

All of that will come over time through a natural progression of creating value, providing value, getting feedback, and then spreading the word.

Where Does OPB Come Into The Picture?

Here’s the beauty of this plan. Most “artists” think that they build their masterpiece first, sell it to someone big like OPB, and wait for the hordes to come to the web site.

That NEVER works (well, maybe sometimes, but I can’t think of a single time when it has made anyone rich).

Instead, they FIRST build a huge and loyal following without too much effort (let the affiliates create the initial buzz). Give like crazy to this first group of followers because they’ll become your front-line sales force. And THEN you can go to OPB or whomever and say, “We’d like to help you…”

Don’t you think this is a much stronger position than the typical artistic endeavor where the media is in the superior position? (By the way, this formula applies equally to book publishing).

Prologue: Back To Internet Basics

Even after I went through the above steps with my friend’s clients, they still felt overwhelmed. I realized that they’re not at all hip to the fundamentals of selling stuff online.

Thus, I needed to explain the differences between a “blog” and a “regular web site.” They had no idea what I meant by list building, autoresponders, or syndication.

And without this fundamental knowledge, they’re likely to pay a web designer thousands of dollars to create an artistic masterpiece that does little more than impress his or her friends. What a shame that would be.

Here’s what I’m going to do to alleviate this problem: I’ll create a series of videos that explain the basic concepts of selling stuff online in layperson’s terms (not in techno-geek or internet marketer-speak).

Along the way, I’ll actually do online reviews of business and entrepreneur web sites. Some of these sites will be B2B (business to business) and others will be B2C (Business to Customer).

Stay tuned (sign up for updates with the form in the upper right corner of this page).

In the mean time, I’ll work on getting THIS blog up to snuff. This cobbler is tired of having no shoes for his own family, if you get my drift.